All Through the Night (24 page)

She wanted to kill Regan just because of that, if nothing else. Because Bobby was in her thrall, ever a man, and couldn’t keep his hands off her or his penis in his damned pants.

“None of that is my fault, Angie. None of that—or Bobby’s coming back.”

“Maybe Bobby’s coming back,” Angie said tightly.

Regan poured some coffee to warm up her cold cup. Another mistake, getting onto this track. She didn’t want to hear that Angie knew about last night.

“We’re talking too much about him.”

“Mother knows.”

“Knows what?”

“He’s back because of you.”

Well, she wasn’t a plague, for God’s sake. She wasn’t a leper. “Well, she’ll just have to deal with it.”

Angie set down her cup. One cup of coffee, and she’d already said too much when all she wanted to know was what happened last night.

Maybe.

No, all she wanted to know was whether Bobby had finally screwed Regan last night. And maybe she didn’t want to know, because if she did, she might do something drastic. “Forget I said that.”

“Why? What do you—what does
she
expect me to do about it?”

Typical Regan. Just mess up everyone else’s life with her thoughtlessness and selfishness, and bulldoze right through it without considering the consequences.

And now she
had
to know. And she didn’t care how it came out: blunt was best with Regan. “He was there last night, wasn’t he? That’s why you didn’t call back. Did you sleep with him?”

Regan didn’t answer.

“After all you’ve been through, after his rejection of every possible overture, after the spectacle you made with him at your party, and after the sheer stupidity of taking him on as a client? You just fell into his arms after all you put him through and
fucked
him?”

Oh, God, this was worse than she ever could have imagined. Angie’s fury, the mother’s alienation, Bobby’s folly and determination… her own inescapable need
—
of course they were on a collision course
…
it was the only possible end to seven years’ repression and isolation
.

“Why don’t we call it a morning, Ang, before anything else gets said that shouldn’t.” And, heaven knew, already there had been enough.

Angie reached for her bag. “I think everything’s been said. I think there’s nothing more to be said except stay away from my brother.”

Stay away…

She threw down five dollars and stalked out of the restaurant.

No sex
… ever again—

Regan buried her head in her arms.

Of course it had turned into a disaster.

… maybe
you
should just go away…

Chapter Seven

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She felt so distraught she didn’t know what to do. It just wasn’t possible that Angie had harbored such feelings all these years and she hadn’t known it.

But maybe it was. Or maybe Bobby was the catalyst. But why, she couldn’t conceive for the life of her unless Angie wanted for Bobby what his mother had always wanted: good blood, good bones, good breeding.

And no liaisons with the likes of
her
.

She called Tony on her cell.

“Angie hates me.”

“Angie doesn’t hate you. Tell me what happened. No, on second thought, let me guess. Bobby.” God, there hadn’t been a moment that wasn’t fraught with Bobby since the party. Since he, looking at the bigger picture, had taken Bobby on as a client. Since Regan had been five minutes in his company.

He was tired to hell of Bobby. And his foreboding about what Regan was going to tell him that he didn’t want to know.

“Bobby.”

Tony closed his eyes. Enough. “I don’t want to know about it.”

“But Angie—”

“She’ll get over it, whatever it is. She always does. And I guess I will too.”

“Tony… ? She was so angry—”

“Well, that’s the thing with Bobby. You either love him or hate him. And everyone knows what side of that fence you’re on, Regan. So… spare me the soap opera details. You know what you’re doing. And now you know how Angie feels about it—and, now—I guess—me. So, take your meetings this morning, and let me know how they went. I’ll see you later at the office.”

And what had she expected? Regan thought as she tucked the phone away. That Tony would be thrilled? That he’d say Angie was wrong? That he’d say everything was going to be just fine?

Tony had said that for years, but now that Bobby was a reality in their lives, things weren’t going to be fine at all. And she didn’t know what had ever made her think they would be.

And all she’d done was traded a night of incandescent pleasure for a whole new menu of lies.

It didn’t work, it didn’t work, it didn’t work…

She didn’t know where to run, what to do.
Bobby and Regan, Bobby and Regan
… for seven years she’d managed to keep them apart, managed to keep Bobby in Chicago, managed to keep her mother mollified, and managed to maintain a friendship with Regan so she’d always know where Regan was, and what she was up to.

And now this. Not even her just falling into his arms after all these years was enough to deter Bobby. God, he needed help, he needed therapy, if that slut was what his dreams were made of. If he thought he would bring that tramp back into the family.

Never. Ever.

“Tony… !” She slammed into the office. Regan would be along soon, too soon for her to really talk to Tony.

He was at the front desk, and on his feet the moment he saw her face.

“He didn’t come home. They fucked last night. Oh, goddamnit—they
fucked
last night.”

He held out his arms and she walked straight into them.

“How do you stand it,” she demanded. “How?”

Tony stroked her hair. “I don’t know how I stand it, year after year, picking up the pieces. Maybe the fact she’s never wanted to screw me makes her all that much more desirable. I don’t know. I never knew. But this is one humpty-dumpty I don’t want to put back together again.”

“I just left her at the diner.”

“I know. She called. And there you go: who’s the first one she thinks of when she’s upset? Well, she’d better get un-upset real fast: she’s got a second meeting with Cargill, and a new client who’s interested in the el area. She won’t be back for hours. Which is a good thing.”

“Thank God,” Angie murmured. “I said things. I’m glad I said them. But it’s ruined everything.
She
ruined everything. Oh, Tony…” She burrowed her face into his shoulder. “Why couldn’t she just leave Bobby alone?”

Wasn’t that the question? Or further still, why couldn’t Bobby just leave her alone?

“Let’s go into my office before the rest of the staff gets here, and we’ll talk some more.”

She drew in a shuddering breath. “I don’t know what to do, I just don’t know what to do.”

“Coffee?”

She shook her head, and he left a note on his secretary’s desk, and herded her into his office. “Take off your coat. Sit down. Take it slow.”

She slipped out of her coat, hung it on the door and turned to face him.

She didn’t have to say it. It was in her eyes, and her need reflected his own. They both needed comfort—they needed each other.

And he wondered why they’d never thought of doing this as he closed the door and eased her to the floor.

~•~

She shouldn’t have called Tony. The thing between her and Bobby was just that, between them, and it was no one’s business.

No one’s business that she went back to the apartment to reassure herself he was still there, still hers. No one’s business how they might spend the ensuing hour that she was scheduled for a business meeting.

Bobby was her business, but it really was time to get back to the office, she thought, eyeing the clock on the kitchen wall.

“I like nipples for breakfast,” Bobby said, nuzzling her breasts. “I want you for breakfast, every day.” He sat up abruptly. “I want you, Regan.”

“I think I know that.”

“I mean, I want you back. I want a life, love, marriage, all the stuff that comes with it—with you.”

She sat very still for a moment, stunned. Somehow, she didn’t expect this. Not on top of Angie’s diatribe this morning. And not while what was between them now was so new and fragile.

And breakable.

Somehow she thought he was just getting his rocks off, scratching that seven year itch, fucking her for as long as she didn’t bore him, and going on from there.

And she’d been willing to accept that the moment she’d agreed to
yes, sex
.

Or had she?

“I think you’re still dreaming,” she said finally.

“I think a man wants to marry any woman who has the talent to keep those damned shoes on even when she’s fucking. Regan—”

“What?”

“I’m serious.”

“You think you are. But you don’t bring girls like me home to Mother. You’ve seen the results.”

“For Christ’s sake. That wasn’t a fairy tale, Regan. I came back for you, plain and simple. I earned you. That’s how I thought of it. I was working my way back to you. Putting in time, growing up, working to deserve you.”

“Don’t—don’t…”

“I gave Angie dozens of messages for you after I left…”

Angie? Her friend. Her confidante
—
all those years
—?

No, Bobby didn’t ask for you. He doesn’t want, doesn’t need, doesn’t care…

Ohmigod, Angie. No wonder, no wonder…

She made a sound that was almost heartbreaking as the ramifications of that admission sunk in.

He got the picture, instantly. “Shit.” Every goddamned body conspiring against him, were they? Not anymore, damnit. “Regan? Don’t cry.”

“I’m not.”

“Good. We’ve got work to do.”

“What work?” she asked suspiciously through her tears.

“Marketing. And spin. I’m taking control of this mess and I’m putting an end to it.”

Tony. Of all the unexpected things.

Tony…

Was it mutual need or mutual vengeance?

In the aftermath of their furious coupling, Angie didn’t know quite what to do, or even what to think.

“Hell, don’t think,” Tony encouraged her. “Just feel. We’ve both sat on our feelings for too long. Sat on possibilities, and almost murdered our own desire to be loved.”

“But you’ve wanted
her
for so long…”

“Maybe I thought I did,” Tony said. “Maybe it’s habit. Maybe it’s territorial. I was completely content until you told me Bobby was back in town. It didn’t matter if she didn’t sleep with me as long as she wasn’t sleeping with anyone else. And she wasn’t, Ang.”

“You don’t know what she was doing.”

“And you do?”

“She’d have what she called a
cat’s night out
. She’d just go on the prowl in the clubs, and maybe just get off on it.”

“Or she said she did, to make us all crazy,” Tony suggested. “And you know what, I’m tired to death of talking about Regan. I want to talk about us.”

But could there be an
us
when there was a Regan? She poisoned everything, and Angie wanted revenge somehow for everything Regan had ruined.

But revenge for what? Bobby didn’t need it. He’d walked into her web with his eyes wide open and he didn’t care. Tony didn’t need it: he knew exactly what she was, and he hadn’t cared either. At least until now. And she wasn’t at all sure it was over: but it was pretty clear he finally was ready to have it be.

Her mother? Too late for Mother. Mother would live with her unrequited hatred forever. And when Bobby walked in the door with the marriage license, Mother would divorce him.

Herself? But hers was the biggest betrayal of all, pretending to be Regan’s friend all these years, and secretly working to keep her from ever seeing Bobby again.

Hers was the worst sin, the most egregious corruption. She’d coopted Regan’s life because she had none of her own—was scared to make one of her own, and then she’d done everything she could to subvert it.

She felt the air go out of her like a helium balloon. There was nothing to fight, and nothing left to fight for.

There was only Tony, watching her closely, sympathetically.